O’Neil praises gutsy display

Gary O’Neil has hailed the character and spirit in the Norwich side as they battled to a 3-2 win over Newcastle at the weekend.

The Canaries twice took the lead against the Magpies, but on both occasions were pegged back, before Martin Olsson grabbed the winning goal deep into stoppage time.

O’Neil admits it took some desperate defending against a Newcastle side who had to push forward after going behind, and has praised the resilience of his team-mates for seeing out the win.

Â“Being 1-0 down they had nothing to lose and again at 2-1 down, they threw caution to the wind,Â” he said. Â“People say donÂ’t sit back, but when they end up with four up front, you canÂ’t not sit back because you canÂ’t just go up and leave them. So it becomes difficult and gets nervy.

Â“But the lads were great. WeÂ’re disappointed weÂ’ve lost our clean sheet run we had going because we were pleased with getting two of those on the trot.

“But once they brought on Mitrovic they had that threat in the air and the lads showed fantastic guts and that little bit of quality as well a couple of times at the end, to make sure we won.Â”